When the legislative session gets underway in January the business community will have some fresh new faces representing its interest.
The state’s largest business lobbying group — the Connecticut Business & Industry Association — has undergone significant turnover over the past year, losing three key lobbyists and recently adding three new hires.
Among the recent departures are Eric George and Kia Murrell. George, who handled healthcare issues, was with CBIA for nearly eight years, but left the organization in June to start his own lobbying firm.
Murrell, a 6-year CBIA vet left the organization in July to take a job at Reed Elsevier, where she is the director of state government affairs for the Northeast region.
The departures of George and Murrell follow the departure last year of Kevin Hennessy, who handled energy issues for nearly five years at CBIA before taking a government affairs job at Dominion.
Bonnie Stewart, a 25-year lobbying vet at CBIA said it is not totally uncommon to have multiple lobbyists leave at the same time. Because they work so closely with businesses, CBIA lobbyists become attractive recruitment targets, particularly for companies looking to add to or start an in-house government affairs division.
“Our lobbyists get exposed to various businesses and organizations and they become attractive employment targets,” Stewart said.
The changeover in personnel at CBIA comes as lawmakers gear up for what is expected to be another contentious and important legislative session.
Since it will be an odd-numbered year, the 2013 session will be an extended one lasting for five months from January to June.
It’s also a budget year, which means Gov. Dannel P. Malloy must propose and state lawmakers must approve a two-year budget plan for fiscal years 2014 and 2015.
That will likely stir up intense partisan debate about how and where to allocate state resources. During the last long session Malloy and Democratic lawmakers balanced a state budget that was more than $3 billion in the red with a mix of spending cuts and record tax increases.
Lawmakers will also likely debate several business tax reform measures recently pitched by a tax policy task force empanelled by Malloy earlier this year. Their suggestions included eliminating some business taxes, consolidating certain tax credits, and urging greater oversight on taxpayer incentives to businesses.
Stewart said she doesn’t expect changes in personnel to negatively impact CBIA’s ability to lobby on issues important to the business community.
Besides budget and tax policy issues, Stewart said there will also be major legislative initiatives related to energy and health care.
“Is there going to be a bit of a learning curve? Yes, there will be,” Stewart said. “But our new staff seems to be mixing quite well and I think we are going to be able to hit the ground running.”
With the recent departures, the CBIA has added three new members to its government affairs team.
The business lobbying group has 12 registered lobbyists who are led by Stewart and Eric Brown, who handles transportation and environmental issues.
Joseph Brennan, CBIA’s senior vice president of public policy, is also a familiar face at the state capitol.
CBIA’s new lobbyists include Laura Cummings, Eric Gjede and Jennifer Herz.
Cummings will be a staff attorney covering education, workers’ compensation and corporate governance and liability. Before joining CBIA, she was in private practice where she specialized in workers’ compensation insurance defense.
Gjede will be an assistant counsel representing businesses on labor and employment, commerce, and housing issues. Prior to CBIA, Gjede was an associate legislative attorney with the Legislative Commissioners’ Office, the nonpartisan legal office of the state legislature.
Herz is an assistant counsel who will be working on health care issues. Before joining CBIA, she was in private practice, specializing in the areas of real estate, land use, telecommunications and energy.
